Jason Biggs Gets Political In 'Grassroots'

Funnyman Jason Biggs, 34, is starring as politician Grant Cogswell’s campaign manager Phil Campbell in the new film Grassroots, an R-rated dramedy based on the book Zioncheck for President. Grassroots tells the true story of oddball Grant (played by Joel David Moore), who enlists his friend Phil, an unemployed journalist, as his campaign manager to fulfill his lofty, if naïve, political aspirations to run for a 2001 Seattle City Council seat. Directed by Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s father, Stephen Gyllenhaal, the film also stars Lauren Ambrose, Christopher McDonald and How I Met Your Mother regular Cobie Smulders.

A Pompton Plains, N.J., native, Biggs acted in several films and series before his big break in teen comedy American Pie (1999), and was nominated twice for his role as Pete Wendall in the soap opera As the World Turns (1994). After playing goofy Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series, Biggs went on to appear in Loser (2000), Jersey Girl (2004) and Over Her Dead Body (2008) alongside Eva Longoria and Paul Rudd. But his creative talents span far beyond the silver screen, including several theater stints such as Modern Orthodox (2004) and Boys’ Life (2008); a hip-hop collaboration with Bay Area rapper E-40 in 2006; and a literary cameo in the What’s Your Exit? A Literary Detour Through New Jersey anthology, to which he contributed his poem “Scratch-and-Sniff” in 2010. Biggs now resides in Los Angeles with his wife and actress, Jenny Mollen, 33, whom he met on the set of My Best Friend’s Girl in 2008.

Biggs talks about his latest endeavor: politics. Inspired by his experience on the set of Grassroots, Biggs recently launched a kickstarter campaign called The Grassroots Project in collaboration with director Stephen Gyllenhaal, father of Maggie and Jake. "There is no specific kind of candidate [in mind]; there is no platform, there is no left, right, center, Democrat, Republican. It’s more about giving a voice to the people and conceptually backing grassroots politics," Biggs told Uinterview exclusively. Although Biggs is a self-professed leftie, he claims that the campaign aims to support all local-level candidates and efforts. "The fact is that no movement is too small, no idea is too small, no person is too small to actually get something done." Biggs also discusses his chemistry with co-star Moore, his take on the dramatic genre, and what office he would run for.